A “pseudowire” (“PW”) is a mechanism for emulating various networking and telecommunications services across a packet-switched network (PSN). Pseudowire can be used, for example, to emulate synchronous optical networking (SONET), synchronous digital hierarchy (SDH), time-division multiplexing (TDM), structure-agnostic TDM over packet (SAToP), frame relay, asynchronous transfer mode (ATM), Ethernet over multi-protocol label switching (MPLS), and other protocols and services.
In conventional pseudowire systems, the pseudowire is configured using the targeted label distribution protocol (tLDP) or the border gateway protocol (BGP). However, using these protocols is problematic and in some cases unnecessary (especially when using certain technologies, for example, Segment Routing, where LDP is not used at all). For example, conventional pseudowire systems require one protocol for the control plane and another protocol for the data plane. Further, route processor switchover convergence time (RP SWO) in high available (HA) systems is significantly higher when using LDP rather than the embodiments of the present disclosure. Further, for in-service software upgrades (ISSUs), the pseudowire will disconnect because the line card black-out time is longer than the LDP session outage detection time. Further, BGP is not always available for use with pseudowire because of operational complexity and cost.
What is needed, therefore, is a pseudowire setup and maintenance mechanism that avoids these problems and others associated with conventional pseudowire configurations.